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Apple's September quarter Mac sales are ahead of consensus after July and August, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster says in a note today, based on analysis of NPD Group stats. Meanwhile, iPod sales are trending below estimates, but international growth and new iPod models will help. Munster says NPD data from July and August show Mac sales up 7% year-over-year through August, while the Street is expecting 5% year-over-year growth for the quarter. Back-to-school sales in the first two months of the quarter probably helped, but at least Apple could handle some deceleration this month and still meet expectations. (And...

Last Monday, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu, perhaps the most closely guarded human being on the face of the Earth, went missing for almost an entire day. His government did not confirm his whereabouts until nearly a week later. Bibi had been in Moscow, slipping off under a cloak of absolute secrecy for an emergency powwow with the Russian government. What was so urgent that the matter could only be handled in person by Israel’s ultimate leader? There is only one topic these days that is earth-shaking enough to justify such a visit. That matter is Iran, a nation...

On September 12, 2009, tens of thousands of Americans gathered at the national mall for a mass rally, itself a culmination of a 7,000 mile bus tour that had started two weeks before in Sacramento, California, to protest the tax and spending policies of the Obama administration. Participants of the 2009 Tea Party movement, which was organized just before Tax Day this year, took their inspiration from the Boston Tea Party of 1773, and not, say, 1776, South Carolina’s Ordinance of Nullification of 1832, or the Confederacy of 1861-65, because while rebellion against George III was legitimate and even glorious,...

Last week, we saw some pretty disturbing activities revealed in the undercover footage from ACORN Housing’s Baltimore office. By any measure of conduct, the actions of ACORN’s employees should never have happened. It turns out the actions shouldn’t have happened for another, very simple, reason: ACORN can’t legally operate in the state of Maryland. According to the following documents, ACORN, Inc.–the parent organization of all things ACORN–forfeited its corporate charter in Maryland in 2006. ACORN Housing forfeited its corporate charter in 2008. Any ACORN office in the state of Maryland is potentially operating illegally. The Maryland Attorney General has made...

As Congress's debate over health-care legislation lumbers toward a defining test for the Obama presidency, partisans on both sides of another issue -- immigration -- escalated their own proxy war this week, concluding that the fates of the two issues have become politically linked. Trying to beat back a furor over whether President Obama's centerpiece initiative would subsidize health care for illegal immigrants, liberal supporters of an immigration overhaul on Monday called a main proponent of that claim a "hate group," citing its founder's ties to white supremacists and interest in racist ideas, such as eugenics. The counterattack comes as...

Gibson: “Maybe that’s just one you leave to the cables.”

A Belleville West High School student was beaten aboard a bus on the way to school Monday, and a police spokesman said the beating could be racially motivated.The 17-year-old victim was white and the teen assailants were black. Police released a video of the beating, which shows the victim being punched repeatedly while other students on the bus gather to watch, some cheering. It doesn't appear that the victim did anything to provoke an attack and tried only to defend himself. Police said it all unfolded in a five-minute span. The victim was trying to find a seat and was...

As Winston Churchill might have put it, capitalism is surely the worst economic system,except for all the others that have been tried. It's capitalism's risk takers -- often using borrowed money -- who produce many of the innovations that spur economic growth. But now, a year to the day since the collapse of Lehman Brothers, it's clearer than ever that capitalism without effective regulation is a disaster waiting to happen.

The 9-12 March on Washington has concluded and by any measure it was nothing short of an historic success for the limited government movement. The debate over how many people were actually there is now raging from one extreme to another. Some media reports have gone as high as 2 million, while liberal pundits like David Schuster have thrown out insulting low estimates under 50,000. I believe the truth is that our crowd actually approached 1 million, but you can judge for yourself as coverage of the March will air on CSPAN again tonight at 8 pm EST. No matter...

House Republicans are not content with just curbing ACORN’s relationships with HUD and the Census Bureau. Monday’s Senate vote, he points out, was an amendment to a housing and transportation spending bill that passed the House in July. When it passed the House in the summer, it did not deny ACORN access to federal dollars. Now, with the amended Senate bill being tossed back to the House (and probably headed for a conference committee), House Republicans see an opportunity to broaden their efforts to cut ACORN off from government money. “There are multiple moving parts now,” the aide says. “There...

When the witness asked the pilot if he was all right, the pilot answered that he was, but he seemed to be unaware that his airplane had impacted poles during the landing. The pilot subsequently asked the witness if the wildfires had reached his ranch. The witness stated that he didn't know where the pilot's ranch was. The pilot then asked the witness if he could put some beer that his brother left in the airplane, in the witness' truck. Another witness asked what happened, and the pilot said, "I don't know, I land here almost every other day." They...

I uploaded video of the Dems heckling George W. Bush during his 2005 State of the Union Address. I guess it's okay if they did it because they couldn't be called racists. Yes, the video is on my blog, but it's easier for me than youtube. Sorry if that bothers you.

"In my estimation, it's racially motivated," said Capt. Don Sax of the Belleville Police Department. He said one reason he had formed this opinion was that many of the students, most of whom were black, yelled their support for the beating."

Although everyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty, a RICO investigation is now warranted. Attorney General Eric Holder should immediately order a RICO investigation, while we all wait to see if more footage is forthcoming.

Pronghorn antelope tangle with a fence in Wyoming's upper Green River Basin in fall 2008. Unable to hurdle the barrier, they're forced to squeeze slowly through or underneath the wire--or turn their backs on a 6,000-year-old annual trek. At 125 miles (200 kilometers) long, the migration is one of the longest among land mammals. Last fall and spring, biologist and photographer Joe Riis, funded by the National Geographic Society's Expeditions Council, became the first to document the entire pronghorn migration on foot. The experience made clear just how arduous human-made hurdles--fences, roads, natural gas fields, housing developments--are making the journey

Obama To Autoworkers: Policies Are Working President says economy is on its way back from the brink President Barack Obama speaks about the economy as he addresses workers at the Lordstown Complex General Motors Plant in Warren, Ohio. Charles Dharapak / AP WARREN, Ohio - President Barack Obama, claiming credit for an uptick on his watch, told autoworkers Tuesday that the economy is on its way back from the brink because of his policies. Pledging to stand firm with autoworkers in northeast Ohio, Obama told factory workers in this town outside Youngstown that his administration had no choice but to...

New Jersey and national Democrats have spent the last few weeks insisting that Gov. Jon Corzine is making a comeback in a race that as recently as last month looked unwinnable for him. As evidence, they cite the barrage of negative stories about former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie (R) as well as a new Monmouth University poll that shows Christie's lead shrinking nearly in half in the last month. "This race has been getting closer for more than a month and almost every poll shows that," said pollster Joel Benenson who has been working with Corzine since August.

Talk to local gardeners, and they’re going to talk about the late spring and the unusually cool summer growing season. In that monologue, you’re going to hear about the so-so onions and slow tomatoes, but also about the stupendous production of cabbages, broccoli and cauliflower. Charles Szakacs reaped the benefits of a cool growing season when his Copenhagen cabbages more than doubled their weight and size. These select giant cabbages weighed around 19 pounds, but more came in at 15 and 16 pounds a head. “I picked one batch of 14 cabbages that weighed 183 pounds,” he said. On the...

SUBOTICA -- Vandals have knocked down a statue of Martin Luther located in central Subotica. The monument was erected less than two years ago. Vice President of the Evangelistic Church Municipality Rudolf Vajs said that he believed that more than one person was responsible, because the monument weighed 300 kilograms. “The police have been informed and have investigated the scene. An investigation is ongoing and we hope that it will be successful and the culprits will be caught,” Vajs said. He said that Subotica had sent a negative message to the world with this act, adding that it was important...

WTAE: While it wasn't a rebellion, the crowd from inside the convention center spilled out onto Penn Avenue and marched to the Byham to see the film and to call for universal health care. The marchers didn't have a permit to occupy all of Penn Avenue, and police arrived to herd Moore and company back onto the sidewalk as they rounded the corner toward the Byham.